Coatings are an essential component of modern, high performance systems and equipment. They can provide corrosion and corrosion cracking protection, extended wear, insulation, and voltage-standoff. However conventional techniques for coatings often result in less than desirable performance characteristics such as less than desired adhesion and low density. In other cases, desirable coatings cannot be applied because the available coating processes cannot achieve the desired phase, stoichiometry, or alloy structure.
Several techniques are currently available for deposition of one material over another or bonding of one material to another. For example, techniques such as physical vapor deposition (PVD), Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and the like can be used to deposit very thin films over a substrate, typically a silicon or germanium-based substrate.
Several other deposition techniques such as anodizing, conversion coating, electroplating, ion beam mixing, etc. are currently used to deposit one material over another material.
Most of the current techniques have several disadvantages. First, the adhesion quality between the deposited material and the base material is often low, resulting in the peeling or general degradation of the deposited film/coating over a period of time or when the component is subjected to stress. Second, several of these techniques are not suitable for depositing refractory metals such as Tantalum, Tungsten, Vanadium, Niobium, and alloys thereof. Since the refractory metals are extraordinarily resistant to heat and often have a high melting point that makes them unsuitable for deposition using conventional techniques.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a deposition/coating process that provides high level of adhesion between the base material and the deposition material regardless of the type of base material and/or deposited material.